At least 30 would-be immigrants survived by clinging to tuna cages when their boat sank between North Africa and Malta, the Italian news agency Ansa reported Saturday, according to DPA. A Maltese tug which spotted the refugees raised the alarm around 120 nautical miles south of Malta, and the Maltese authorities had arrived on the scene to organize a rescue attempt, the report said. No further details were immediately available. The incident occurred as Malta's armed forces said they would not be resuming the search for a ship with 53 would-be immigrants on board which has been missing off the Mediterranean island since Monday. A Maltese army spokesman said Thursday that "the search (for the missing immigrants) will not be resumed by the Armed Forces of Malta." In a statement issued on Wednesday, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) "urged governments in the region to do everything possible to trace the missing vessel and those on board, some of whom may be asylum seekers." The boat, with a load believed to have included several children, was first spotted by an aircraft of the Armed Forces of Malta on Monday, some 80 nautical miles south of the island. Aerial photographs showed the boat to be overcrowded and in distress, with the passengers seen trying to bail out water with a jerrycan, UNHCR said. Some of them reportedly contacted relatives living in Italy by satellite phone, who in turn alerted Italian maritime authorities. Maltese patrol boats and aircraft later failed to establish contact with the boat and called off the search on Tuesday. More than 100 immigrants travelling on three separate boats have since landed in Malta illegally after undertaking the voyage from Libya on ramshackle boats encouraged by the fine weather and relatively calm seas. Thousands of would-be immigrants from Asia and Africa cross the Mediterranean Sea each year in a bid to enter the European Union illegally via Malta, Italy and Spain.
